Tell us about your relationship with music. When did you start rapping and singing and what made you decide to pursue a career in it?
Flipp Dinero: I’ve been making music all my life. I grew up in the church, and my mother and father were singing in the choir. So it was just instilled in me to sing. It just so happens, as I got older, I did poetry, I participated in poetry contests, and I just mixed the poetry with the singing and that’s how the rapping bars came about. I elevated with it, I meditated on it, and it grew.
What were you doing before pursuing music full-time?
Flipp Dinero: I was definitely in the hood, trapping. Doing my thing. I had like two, three, 9-to-5s, but I quit. I couldn’t do it. I was in college, getting good grades, but I just felt music was my calling, so I quit everything. I quit my job, dropped out of college and just devoted my time to music. I just knew I wouldn’t be emotionally satisfied if I wasn’t doing what I was passionate about.
So you’re first-generation Haitian, tell us about how your upbringing and growing up in Brooklyn trickles into your music and creative process.
Flipp Dinero: I grew up in a household that was very strict. My mother and father always instilled being as smart as I can possibly be. They also told me that common sense isn’t that common. That stuck with me, and I always challenged myself as a young kid to be better than all the young kids in my age bracket. I just turned 24, but I tell everyone all the time, “Yo, I don’t feel 24, I feel 30, 35,” but I am still learning. And being in Brooklyn, I was born in Flatbush and I moved to Canarsie, and that area is what molded me. I’ve seen a lot of shit, and it just pushed me to be different.
Your song “Leave Me Alone” arguably skyrocketed your career. Just two months after its release, it went gold. A month after that, it went platinum. It made Apple Music’s The A List: Hip Hop playlist and Spotify's popular RapCaviar playlist. Tell us about that experience. Were you expecting it? Did you ever think, “Yeah, this one is gonna be the hit”?
Flipp Dinero: Nah, not even. When I made that song, it was just another one in the books. I always made music and I have a lot of songs that are tucked, but to see the way the song caught flight is what baffled me. I was like, “Oh, shit, this shit is really climbing,” and when Drake had posted it, I was on tour with Tory Lanez. I was sleeping in an SUV, doing a 48-state tour, going hard, it was super hard. But, I woke up in the SUV and I’m looking at my phone, and I’m seeing all these notifications from people saying Drake just posted my track. I found out through other people, from social media, that’s why it’s so essential. And from that point on, it took off. Bonkers. Crazy. Khaled showed me love too, and it skyrocketed. The whole effect was crazy.